Welcoming the E-Reader Era

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Barnes & Noble was set to release its own wireless, touch-screen reading device in time for the holiday season. That came on the heels of Wednesday's announcement from Amazon that it was cutting the price of its Kindle e-reader by $40 and launching a new (more expensive) international version. Is the age of the e-reader finally upon us?

Sales Up Forrester Research, a company that specializes in analyzing and predicting tech trends, recently upped their projection for how many e-readers would be sold this year by 50%, from 2 million to 3 million. Forrester blogger Sarah Rotman Epps notes that retailers haven't fully caught on to the devices:

"Walk into your typical Borders bookstore, as I did recently, and you're likely to get quizzical looks from sales staff when you ask about eReaders and have a hard time finding the kiosks where the devices are on display…We're realistic about the limits of what they can change in a single season. Our holiday projections should be seen for what they are: An acknowledgement that 2009 has been and will be a year of breakout success for eReaders, tempered by realism that retailers, despite their best intentions, are still learning how to sell these products to curious but uninformed consumers."

Sony Skepticism Scrutinizing the Forrester report, All Things Digital blogger Peter Kafka says that soaring predictions of sales "may even be right," but quibbles with the idea that Sony's e-reader will be a hit: "I gather that Sony’s device is supposed to have created a footprint overseas, but while I see the occasional Kindle on the subway or an airplane, I have never, ever, ever seen a Sony reader in the wild. Have you?"

Convincing Consumers At Forbes, Andy Greenberg is highly optimistic about the possibility of an e-reader sales explosion this holiday season, but even he acknowledges that the Forrest report reveals a potential sticking point for consumers: "Price is still the biggest barrier to mainstream e-reader adoption: 60% of respondents to a Forrester study still say they'd only buy a digital reader for less than $100." PaidContent's Staci D. Kramer doesn't shy away from the fact that e-readers remain a mysterious product to many consumers: "Forty percent of US online consumers still say they’ve heard of but haven’t seen an e-Reader. The percentage of those who haven’t heard of an e-Reader dropped from 37 percent in Q209 to 17 percent in Q309. The hype factor—which doesn’t always equal success - is in hyperdrive: Kindle media mentions so far this have nearly doubled over last year, while Sony’s are up 250 percent."

E-Readers Already Face Threats points out Time's Adam Rose. Providing a brief history of the e-reader phenomenon, Rose notes that the gadgets are becoming more ubiquitous thanks to entries from big-name manufacturers and reductions in price. However, as he observes, the e-reader faces its own set of threats: "Currently more people read e-books on their smartphones than they do on dedicated devices like e-readers…Apple, the king of cool handheld devices, is rumored to be readying a tablet computer with all the functions of a laptop as well as iPhone-like touch capabilities for release early next year. Microsoft has been secretive about its plans for a tablet, but a video making the rounds of the blogosphere show a dual-LCD-screen prototype that closes like a book."